N.Z. wool grower needs bolder British sales pitch

Press, 11 July 1983, Page 17

N.Z. wool grower needs bolder British sales pitch

Taylor and Lodge also does an international circuit. It produces a fully machine-washable 109 per cent wool cloth (160/180 gramme) for Egyptian thobs — the tentlike overdress worn by men on cool days. It also markets a 100 per cent worsted spun cashmere, expensive but durable, in Japan. The company is responsive to its specialist clients. A lightweight (310/340 gramme) fabric in silk and lambswool, flecked with cotton is available in 20 different designs, in 40 to 50 colourways, and the company will accept orders for single pieces. It also produces 100 per cent wool worsteds that are coloured and patterned like tweed but feel like sin. And for winter comes a range in the grey and browns of Jacobs wool. In addition there is a washable worsted that is very fine to handle but crease-resistant because of a lightly applied resin. Cool to wear, creases drop out overnight.

But it would be false to suggest that all the leading mills are over-concerned with foreign markets.

John Foster, for example, is a supplier to Marks and Spencers. Its mohair suitings, worsteds and polyester/worsteds sell not only in the United Kingdom, but around the world.

The company’s newly-de-veloped wool, mohair and silk mixture, it describes as classic. However, this is yet another example of British mis-statement, modesty rather than the wish to deceive being their motive.

'British are truly eccentric’

This new fabric looks like Thai silk. The colours are delicately held in balance, a medley of discords which are so finely spaced that the over-all effect is harmonious.

Having a field day with history is Fox Brothers, from the west of England, It proclaims that history is repeating itself, and display a colour range dated 1773. How historic they are, though, is debatable.

In tills decade the company supplies Marks and Spencers, and offers a range of flannels that seduce the eye and the hand.

In 1773 through till the second half of this century the flannels weighed J>so to 590 gramme. Now they have been pared to 370 to 460. Not so thick, but equally colourful.

The delight of flannel is in its motley. Over-all it has a colour, cut that colour comes from the diversity of tones that are married, sometimes incongruously. The tones are then deepened and clouded by the milling that adds a rich down across the surface.

In these two areas it would be difficult to find a mill that approaches, let alone surpasses, this one. I want to end by saying that the British are truly eccentric.

This particular industry, or part of the textile industry, is under severe pressure. They should, one would think, bellow their virtues to the world. Instead, they shrink like violets from the rough and tumble of the market place. If a buyer comes to Britain it is a problem to find fabric of this quality and design.

Even the British have problems finding it.

A survey conducted on behalf of the National Economic Development Office found the industry guilty of insufficient innovation in fabric construction and surface effect; insufficient involvement in fashion trends; failure to design targeted ranges; and not presenting their ranges effectively. This surely cannot be a just verdict on the industry’s leaders, the companies I am writing about. While the British do not exhibit their best to the world at large there is little chance of them increasing their production and sales. On the contrary, if they cannot be more hospitable to their potential clients, more generous in the sharing of their design and development, then the decline referred to earlier must inevitably continue. New Zealand is, in terms of bulk, the largest supplier of wool to the United Kingdom — in 1982, more than a third of all raw wool imoorts.

To protect bis own interests, the New Zealand wool grower must hope to see a bolder sales effort by his customers.